Capital Southwest (CSWC) Competitors

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) and Main Street Capital (NYSE:MAIN) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, media sentiment, community ranking, institutional ownership and earnings.

Do analysts prefer CSWC or MAIN?

Capital Southwest presently has a consensus price target of $25.50, indicating a potential downside of 1.92%. Main Street Capital has a consensus price target of $48.20, indicating a potential downside of 5.45%. Given Capital Southwest's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Capital Southwest is more favorable than Main Street Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Capital Southwest	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Main Street Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Is CSWC or MAIN a better dividend stock?

Capital Southwest pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.8%. Main Street Capital pays an annual dividend of $2.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Capital Southwest pays out 111.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Main Street Capital pays out 53.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the media refer more to CSWC or MAIN?

In the previous week, Main Street Capital had 4 more articles in the media than Capital Southwest. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Main Street Capital and 7 mentions for Capital Southwest. Main Street Capital's average media sentiment score of 0.38 beat Capital Southwest's score of 0.37 indicating that Main Street Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Capital Southwest	0 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Main Street Capital	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of CSWC or MAIN?

23.4% of Capital Southwest shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.3% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Capital Southwest shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Main Street Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better valuation & earnings, CSWC or MAIN?

Main Street Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Capital Southwest. Main Street Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capital Southwest, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Capital Southwest	$178.13M	6.69	$83.39M	$2.05	12.68
Main Street Capital	$500.39M	8.73	$428.45M	$5.48	9.30

Is CSWC or MAIN more profitable?

Main Street Capital has a net margin of 89.11% compared to Capital Southwest's net margin of 46.81%. Capital Southwest's return on equity of 15.88% beat Main Street Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Capital Southwest	46.81%	15.88%	7.67%
Main Street Capital	89.11%	14.83%	7.88%

Which has more risk & volatility, CSWC or MAIN?

Capital Southwest has a beta of 1.24, indicating that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Main Street Capital has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CSWC or MAIN?

Main Street Capital received 160 more outperform votes than Capital Southwest when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.02% of users gave Capital Southwest an outperform vote while only 56.90% of users gave Main Street Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Capital Southwest	Outperform Votes 240 62.02%	Underperform Votes 147 37.98%
Main Street Capital	Outperform Votes 400 56.90%	Underperform Votes 303 43.10%

Summary

Main Street Capital beats Capital Southwest on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.